Diotimos Reading Desk

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← ExitThe Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volume II

Reading language

According to Plato

One sketches his thoughts, another paints them, another engraves them, [and] sometimes yet another sculpts them.

October […].

Farewell, pleasures. I laugh at you, provided I love God.

October […].

Of simplicity of taste, or Of simple taste (in literature). In [the] taste for food, it consists (this simplicity) in liking only very simple [dishes], that is, those agreeable in themselves, [and] on their own or with little seasoning, such as milk, eggs, [vegetables], fruits and butcher’s meats. In literary taste, [simplicity] likewise consists [in liking] what pleases by itself [or] with few adornments.

But, fool, you yourself understand the ancients and foreigners [only] because you translate them for yourself. So allow someone to help you [translate]. Why, one even translates one’s own language for oneself; and Lebrun [misunderstood] the “clad in plain woolen cloth.”

(Literature). One can give simplicity to richness (and one [must] do so in every genre). One can also give richness [to] simplicity. La Fontaine did so; but this is permitted only in [play]. This is where Balzac failed.

October […]9.

To understand Homer well, one must have a Homeric mind. — Of [those] who have spoken well of God.

October […].

He is a man who gets himself read, but also gets himself forgotten.

The old and the dying predict your ruin. The old, I say, and the dying, who are the wisest of men.

October 31.

There is not, let us remember it well, there is no other evil in the world, and there is likewise no other good, than moral good and evil. Everything that makes us worse is a misfortune, and everything that makes us better is an advantage.

T315.The fronted possessive ses pensées is redistributed into ordinary English syntax; no named thinker is supplied. All four crafts, the repeated another and the qualification sometimes remain. [And] contextually interprets the wholly lost connector before quelquefois.

T316.The direct plural address and conditional provided remain. Laugh at renders se mocquer de with its dismissive and mocking force; the sentence is not made a categorical denial of pleasure.

T317.The two Of openings, parenthetic self-explanation, list and food/literature analogy remain. Butcher’s meats renders grosses viandes: the directly read Académie 1798 Viande entry identifies grosse viande with butcher’s meat, including beef, mutton and veal, rather than large portions or poor-quality meat. The printed source-editor [à aimer] corresponds to [in liking]. [The], [dishes], [and], [vegetables], [simplicity] and [or] interpret le, mets, et, légumes, simplicité and ou from the separate reproduction losses. The connector before seuls is contextual and retains the source’s repetition of agreeable in themselves and on their own; it is not a recovered word.

T676.The damaged day has no complete numeral. The source-supplied [à aimer] is distinct from new reproduction-loss markers. The incomplete openings before goût, ets, seuls, gumes, mplicité and avec are not filled; the g of gumes is retained with its clipped upper-left contour qualified. The second Du is capitalized. The nominal opening, restrictive ne…que, repeated simplicity and two food/literature relations remain. Eux mêmes is unhyphenated here; soi-même has its hyphen.

T318.The second-person rebuke, self-translation and even remain. [Only] interprets damaged que together with the intact earlier n’; [translate] interprets traduire from tra[…]ire. Whole [misunderstood] renders intact entendoit and travers with the contextual lost à in entendoit à travers; the broader English bracket does not claim those intact French words were lost. Woolen cloth renders bureau: Académie 1798 Bureau I equates it with bure, whose complete entry defines coarse woolen cloth. The exact quoted phrase and Lebrun’s particular misunderstanding remain unlocated.

T677.The damaged opening before e preserves the final e only; intact n’ remains in the earlier negative construction. The wrapped verb preserves tra and ire, without recovering the incomplete u-shaped component or preceding letters. Before travers the right-hand remnant does not certify a whole word. Imbécille, unhyphenated toi même, Lebrun and the short quotation remain; the cloth term is not silently replaced in French.

T319.The two directions of giving, can/must distinction, all genres and restriction to play remain. [Must], [to] and [play] interpret faut, à and badinant from […]ut, the wholly lost preposition and badi[…]ant. In remains outside the final bracket for intact en. La Fontaine is the conventional English spacing of printed Lafontaine; no particular work or episode is identified for either writer.

T678.The opening parenthesis is intact beside detached margin artifacts. The clipped verbal opening retains ut, with the reduced left side of u qualified. Before la simplicité only incomplete marks survive; no preposition is recovered. The wrapped badi/ant loses the first continuation letter, whose remnant is not a complete n. Both peut clauses, repeated simplicity/wealth reversal, source punctuation and restrictive n’est…qu’en remain.

T320.Both well formulations and the shift into an Of fragment remain. The mind/subject relation is left implicit; no missing comparison or named theologian is added. [Those] interprets ceux from […]ux; the damaged day retains only a qualified final 9.

T679.The day suffix 9 is a provisional damaged reading from its upper oval and small lower projection; the leading loss is retained and no full day is inferred. The independent native comparison supports this qualified suffix while leaving its damaged lower contour uncertain. Before ux the e-like remnant is incomplete, and no missing initial word is recovered. The second nominal formulation follows the dash within the same paragraph.

T321.The repeated causative and reversal remain. The unnamed man is not identified from adjacent passages.

T680.The day retains only an incomplete curved/descending right fragment, insufficient to certify a numeral. Both se fait formulations and mais aussi remain.

T322.Both groups and their repetition remain, along with the superlative and unnamed addressee. Ruin leaves perte’s possible loss or destruction open rather than supplying a specific event.

T681.The first direct personal prediction and second repeated nominal-relative formulation remain. Mourants retains its printed ts ending.

T323.The suspended first negative and repeated there is, parenthetic exhortation and source order evil/good before good/evil remain. Worse/better and misfortune/advantage preserve the two judgments without silently changing the first noun order. The printed October 31 precedes October 24 and is not reordered.

T682.The repeated il n’y a and reversed evil/good then good/evil ordering remain. Souvenons-nous has its hyphen, but no additional hyphen before en. The final moral remains singular as printed. The date 31 is intact.